There are many wagering games used for gambling. Generally, it is desirable that such wagering games be relatively uncomplicated so that they can be understood easily by players. The games should be exciting to arouse players' interest. It is also desirable that the games can be played rapidly to their wager-resolving outcome. Rapid play and wager resolution enhances players' interest and enjoyment because betting opportunities are increased. Wagering games should provide reasonable odds in favor of the players, yet favor the casino, house, dealer or banker, and also meet the requirements of regulatory agencies.
One such game is pai gow, a Chinese tile game. It has been adapted into pai gow or Asian poker, the tiles being replaced by typical, well-known playing cards. According to an article in the April, 1992 issue of WIN, casinos in the United States began offering pai gow poker in the 1980's.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,087 (to Shen et al.) discloses a casino card game somewhat similar to pai gow poker in that each player makes or sets two groups of cards in a hand, in that dice are used to determine the first card to be dealt, and in that to win, both groups of cards in a hand must be higher than the banker's cards. The casino card game disclosed by Shen et al. is unlike pai gow poker and the present invention in that the number of cards per hand is different, there is no procedure to determine to which player the first hand should be dealt, and in that there is no side bet method disclosed or suggested.
The game disclosed by Shen et al., pai gow poker, and other Asian games are becoming increasingly popular because they are not hard to learn, play and wager-resolution are fairly fast, and they are exciting. Nevertheless, games such as the Shen et al. game, pai gow poker, Carribean Stud.TM. poker and others include random events or random event-based procedures in addition to their usual wager-resolving outcomes and this type of game could be made even more exciting by providing the opportunity for players to make additional wagers on procedural events involving random events inherent in the rules and procedures of the games.
Ways to provide wagering games with additional wagering opportunities are known. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,861,041 and 5,087,405 (both to Jones et al.) disclose methods and apparatus for progressive jackpot gaming, respectively. The former patent discloses that a player may make an additional wager at the beginning of a hand, the outcome of the additional wager being determined by the appearance of a predetermined arrangement of cards in the player's hand. The apparatus includes a progressive meter for displaying the amount of the progressive jackpot. In contrast to the side bet method of the present invention, the progressive jackpot additional wager is unrelated to the procedures of the game being played, and requires interested players to learn yet another rule and arrangement of cards. Substantial modifications of the usual or typical casino gaming table are also required.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,107 (to Boylan et al.) discloses another method and apparatus for a wagering game wherein additional symbols, a number of no value cards or balls, are added to the usual means of playing the game. An additional wager, based on the chance appearance of symbols while playing the game, is made. The wagering game according to the Boylan et al. reference could include pai gow poker and, in one version of the Boylan et al. game, chance appearance bets would be made prior to dealing any cards. In contrast, the wagering game of the present invention does not require any additional symbols or rules in excess of or different than the symbols and rules usually associated with the game. Nonetheless, the side betting method, and apparatus, of the present invention serves to increase players' excitement and interest in the game.
The rapid play of wagering games such as pai gow poker generates another problem. When combined with relatively large hands (seven cards in pai gow poker) and many players (up to seven in pai gow poker), rapid play causes a lot of shuffling and dealing time to the detriment of players' excitement and interest. Some of this time can be recovered by using shuffling machines such as the machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,884 (invented by the inventor of the present invention and commonly owned).
Playing and wagering time can be increased in other ways as well. U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,429 (to LeVasseur) discloses a modified version of a wagering game, specifically blackjack or twenty-one, wherein the dealer plays multiple hands against a player's single hand, whereby the number of hands played in the same amount of time is increased. After the first hand played in the conventional manner, the dealer picks up all of the dealer's cards except the first. The dealer then plays a second hand against a player's first or existing hand. Unlike the present invention, the LeVasseur modified game simply provides more of the usual wager-resolving outcomes. There is no disclosure or suggestion about how to provide new, additional wagering opportunities based on random events, if any, intrinsic to the game.